The Commentariat -- July 18, 2016

See also yesterday's Afternoon Update, which is extensive.

Julie Bloom & Mike McPhate of the New York Times: "Three law enforcement officers were fatally shot and three others wounded on Sunday in Baton Rouge, La., the authorities said, less than two weeks after a black man was killed by the police here, sparking nightly protests. The gunman, who was identified as Gavin Long of Kansas City, Mo., was killed by the police. Mr. Long was a Marine who served six months in Iraq, according to his service record. He joined the corps in 2005, served five years and was made a sergeant in 2008. The police said initially that they were looking for other possible suspects, but the superintendent of the Louisiana State Police ... said at a news conference that the person who attacked the officers had been shot and killed at the scene." -- CW ...

... Matthew Teague of the Guardian: "Baton Rouge staggered into a new week of violence as a black separatist killed three police officers, including a black officer [-- Montrell Jackson --] who recently pleaded with friends online: 'Don't let hate infect your heart.'... By Monday, key details started to emerge about both the shooter, 29-year-old Gavin Long of Missouri, and his victims. Long's personal history is marked by radical twists: he was a military veteran who took a series of ideological turns, and eventually joined a fringe group called the Washitaw Nation of Mu'urs." -- CW ...

...Travis Gettys of RawStory: "The gunman who killed three Baton Rouge police officers Sunday apparently believed most laws did not apply to him because he'd declared himself a 'sovereign citizen.' Gavin Eugene Long ... filed documents last year near his Missouri home declaring himself a United Washitaw de Dugdahmoundyah Mu'ur Nation, Mid-West Washita Tribes, reported the Kansas City Star...The sovereign citizen belief system originated about 40 years ago in the deeply racist and anti-Semitic Posse Comitatus movement, which teaches that the government has authority over only those citizens who submit to a contract." --safari...

... Steve Hardy & Jim Mustian of the Baton Rouge Advocate: Montrell Jackson, "a Baton Rouge policeman who was once injured trying to save a toddler from a burning building and recently welcomed a son of his own, was one of the three officers killed in a Sunday morning shooting." --CW ...

... Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post: "Storied civil rights figures ... as well as the young leaders who make up the Black Lives Matter protest movement were quick to decry the violence against officers in Baton Rouge.... Shooting police is not a civil rights tactic,' said Jesse Jackson, a longtime civil rights leader. 'The shooting in Dallas had nothing to do with the civil rights struggle, and neither does the shooting in Baton Rouge.'" -- CW ...

... B.J. Lutz of WISN Milwaukee: "A Milwaukee police officer was shot in a 'vicious' attack early Sunday as he sat in his squad car while colleagues investigated a domestic disturbance call, an official said. The suspected shooter, identified by police as a 20-year-old West Allis man with two felonies on his record, was found dead in a nearby yard, they said." The officer, Brandon Baranowski, was saved by his bullet-proof vest.

Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State John F. Kerry cautioned Monday that Turkey's membership in NATO could be jeopardized if abandons democratic principles and the rule of law in a post-coup crackdown. 'NATO also has a requirement with respect to democracy,' Kerry told reporters after European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned Turkey not to execute coup plotters. She noted that countries with the death penalty cannot join the European Union, as Turkey has sought to do." -- CW ...

... Tim Arango & Ceylan Yeginsu of the New York Times: "The coup attempt [in Turkey] seems to have been decisively quashed, with nearly 6,000 military personnel in custody.... As the weekend progressed, it was becoming clearer that for [President Recep] Erdogan and his religiously conservative followers, the moment was a triumph of political Islam more than anything else.... As Turks waited to see in which direction their mercurial and powerful leader would steer..., Mr. Erdogan struck some conciliatory notes on Sunday. Yet he has also raised the possibility that Turkey would reinstate the death penalty, which it had abolished as a part of its pursuit to join the European Union." -- CW ...

... Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "Signs of testy relations between Turkey's embattled government and the United States continued Sunday, as Secretary of State John Kerry denounced any suggestion of American involvement in Friday's coup. 'We think it's irresponsible to have accusations of American involvement,' Mr. Kerry told CNN Sunday. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has accused Fethullah Gulen, a reclusive cleric now living in Pennsylvania, of orchestrating the violence, and Mr. Erdogan demanded that Mr. Gulen be extradited. Mr. Gulen has denied the charge, and Mr. Kerry said the Justice Department would examine any evidence Turkey presented as part of an extradition request." -- CW ...

... Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker: "With the coup attempt thwarted, [President Erdogan] will no doubt seize the moment. In recent months, Erdogan has made little secret of his desire to rewrite the constitution to give himself near total power. There will be no stopping him now." -- CW

... Erdağ Göknar, in Juan Cole's Informed Comment (originally published in Duke Today): "To those who claim this coup was a hoax, the evidence points to the contrary: The parliament has been bombed, the Turkish general staff headquarters were occupied, top military commanders were detained, TV stations were taken over, more than 200 are dead, more than 1000 are injured, and gruesome images continue to emerge." -- CW

Yes, the Supremes Are Politicians. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The thing that separates all the smart lawyers who would like to become federal judges from the ones who actually become judges is most often political connections.... Involvement in ideological causes, political campaigns and conservative or liberal organizations acts as a sieve. It separates out those who are chosen by the political elite for lifetime appointments. And then Senate confirmation is supposed to instantly transform the recipient into a nonpartisan and objective trier of facts and interpreter of laws." -- CW

Presidential Race

John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "The takeaway from interviews with dozens of Democrats is that [Hillary Clinton] has an array of options [in make her vice-presidential choice], and her ultimate choice will reveal a great deal about the president she intends to be. Clinton's interviews with the contenders have been short on chit-chat, instead homing in on each candidate's policy chops." -- CW

Another Sanderista comes around:

... If you've got sticker envy, looks like you can create your own, for a price. Thanks to Rob W. for the link.

AP: "A West Virginia Republican lawmaker said on Sunday his comments made on Twitter calling for Hillary Clinton's public execution were not meant to be taken literally.... In the tweet, [W.Va. House of Delegates member Mike] Folk said ... [she] 'should be tried for treason, murder, and crimes against the US Constitution ... then hung on the Mall in Washington DC'.' Folk defended his tweet against claims it was a death threat & says he has received death threats as a result of the tweet. CW: This is reassuring: "Folk is a United Airlines pilot. United Airlines said in a statement on Sunday that he had been removed from his schedule and was not flying, pending an investigation." So not exactly the "friendly skies." Your pilot is off his rocker, people.

I put lipstick on a pig. I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is. I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization. -- Tony Schwartz, ghostwriter of The Art of the Deal, who says if he wrote the book today, he would title it The Sociopath ...

... ** Jane Mayer of the New Yorker interviews Tony Schwartz, who ghost-wrote The Art of the Deal. CW: Schwartz & Mayer reinforce everything you already knew or suspected about Trump. ...

... The Sociopath, Ctd.:

Your running mate ... voted for the [Iraq War]. -- Lesley Stahl

I don't care. -- Donald Trump

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "That's a remarkable comment.... He has repeatedly argued [that Hillary Clinton's vote for the war] shows his judgment is superior to [Clinton's]. But Pence casting the same vote? He doesn't care....

But I was against the war in Iraq from the beginning. -- Donald Trump

"This is the point at which we note that the only record of his having an opinion on the war in Iraq before it began was an interview in which he expressed support.... In Trump's mind, Pence gets a pass on that judgment, rooted in bad intelligence. Trump himself gets a pass on not being able to present any evidence that his judgment was any different. Clinton, however, is riddled with bad judgment because of her stance on the issue. This will cost him zero votes."

CW: Stahl just says, "Got it," when Trump says Pence is "allowed to make a mistake once in awhile," but Clinton is not. When is some interviewer going to respond, "That doesn't make sense. It's the kind of thing crazy people say"? ...

... All About Trump. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump ... did most of the talking during the 21-minute ['60 Minutes'] segment that aired on Sunday night, while Pence sat beside him, gazing approvingly and allowing Trump to answer nearly all of the questions, even those directed at him. By the end, Trump had uttered more than 2,160 words while Pence's word count clocked in around 900. When Pence did get the chance to speak, Trump would often cut him off with a correction or answer of his own." -- CW

**141 Disqualifications. Chris Kirk, et al., of Slate: "[W]e have compiled a list of specific things that make Trump an unacceptable candidate for the presidency. Some are policy proposals that should be outside the bounds of debate, like punitive torture. Some are casual vulgarities, like his description of Rosie O'Donnell. You might not agree that each individual item on the list is disqualifying in isolation -- you can vote those down, and vote up the ones you find especially egregious-- but the list's cumulative weight makes its own statement." --safari

Daily Beast Editors: "Donald Trump implied Monday morning that President Obama was insincere when he spoke about the shooting deaths of three Baton Rouge police over the weekend. 'There's something going on,' the Republican presidential nominee kept repeating onFox & Friends. In the past, Trump has used the same phrase to imply that Obama secretly supports terror attacks. This time, The Donald suggested that the president might support cop-killing." --safari

'Tis Folly to Be Wise. -- D. Trump. Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: Donald Trump "appears to have an unusually light appetite for reading. He said in a series of interviews that he does not need to read extensively because he reaches the right decisions 'with very little knowledge other than the knowledge I [already] had, plus the words 'common sense,' because I have a lot of common sense and I have a lot of business ability.'" About all he reads is articles from newspapers & magazines -- about himself. ...

     ... CW: BTW, Jane Mayer's interview of Tony Schwartz backs up Fisher's report: "Schwartz believes that Trump's short attention span has left him with 'a stunning level of superficial knowledge and plain ignorance.... I seriously doubt that Trump has ever read a book straight through in his adult life.' During the eighteen months that he observed Trump, Schwartz said, he never saw a book on Trump's desk, or elsewhere in his office, or in his apartment." Then there's a collective anecdote in which we learn that Trump kept a copy of Hitler's collected speeches at his bedside, but that he never read so much as the title.

"The Normalization of Trump." Jonathan Chait (July 15): "... to look at Pence as a dissident from Trumpism is to misunderstand the nature both of Pence and his party. Pence didn't endorse free trade and oppose Trump's Muslim ban because liberal internationalism runs deep in his soul. He did it because he is a committed movement conservative and party operative, with deep ties to party funders like the Kochs. It served the party's interest to fight Trump during the primary, but it currently serves that interest to close ranks." -- CW

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Paul Krugman: Part of the reason Donald Trump is succeeding "is that too much of the news media still can't break with bothsidesism -- the almost pathological determination to portray politicians and their programs as being equally good or equally bad, no matter how ludicrous that pretense becomes.... Surveys show that Mrs. Clinton has, overall, received much more negative coverage than her opponent." -- CW

Gabriel Sherman of New York: Corey Lewandowski, crack independent CNN journalist, is still advising Donald Trump to be his stupid self.

Tabatha Abu El-Haj & of Slate: "Those coming to Cleveland to exercise their First Amendment rights, whatever their partisan persuasion, will leave frustrated and disappointed. Next week in Cleveland will likely prove to be a sad new low for First Amendment exercise in this country." --safari

Scammer in Chief. Oliver Laughland & Mae Ryan in the Guardian: "In Mount Pleasant [a neighborhood in Cleveland's East Side], where more than 15% of the neighbourhood's housing stock is currently vacant or abandoned, average property sale prices plunged [during the 2008 housing crisis] from an average of $84,000 in 2005 to just $14,837 in 2015.... At the height of Mount Pleasant's suffering, Trump sought to capitalise. In 2008, the billionaire Republican advised 'pupils' at ... Trump University, that they could make a million dollars within a year by targeting vulnerable communities with individuals desperate to offload their properties.... At the time, the real estate mogul had only recently shuttered a brokerage company, Trump Mortgages, which had, according to insider accounts, offered subprime mortgages to customers through cold calls. Trump is set to accept his party's nomination ... three miles down the road from Mount Pleasant on Thursday." A long read. --safari ...

...Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "Republican National Convention organizers on Sunday released the final schedule for what Donald Trump's campaign manager promised would be 'a Trump convention.'" CW: For those of you who want to plan your week around convention events, here's the schedule. ...

... The Guardian is liveblogging happenings leading up to the Republican convention, or what it calls the "Trump Family Circus." -- CW ...

... Benjamin Wallace-Wells of the New Yorker analyzes this year's GOP platform, a disturbing amalgam of Donald Trump's nationalism & Tony Perkins' Christianist sex-obsessed theology. "... it seems that Perkins [-- head of the Family Research Council --] has realized that Trumpism can be understood ... as an injunction against the usual concerns of political correctness or partisan tactics, against worrying about the way things might appear. It may be that what Trump has lent his Party is not so much a program but a prompt to conservatives, to feel themselves unconstrained." -- CW ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "... nothing will test the news media like the next few days in Cleveland.... Mr. Trump will have ... nearly full control of the national media stage for four straight evenings in prime time.... He has been planning to make full use of his time in his trademark way, with daily themes that will weave in staples of hot-button topics...: Bill Clinton's infidelity, Hillary Clinton's response to the attack on the American compound in Benghazi, and immigration.... The robust fact-checking industry that has sprung up over the past several years will have to work overtime during both conventions." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Organized "Religion". Luke O'Neil of The Daily Beast: "According to ex-members of [the] Twelve Tribes [religious sect] who spoke to The Daily Beast, children are regularly beaten and leaders preached 'slavery is necessary.' Now, an escapee has taken over the Facebook page of the Plymouth bakery run by the commune so he can broadcast its ills.... [The] former members... [say] [Elbert 'Gene'] Spriggs, [also preached] ... that homosexuals should be put to death.... The half-dozen former members who spoke to The Daily Beast also allege a culture of systematic child abuse, subjugation of women, and psychological torment." --safari

Kate Lyons of the Guardian: "The six wealthiest countries in the world, which between them account for almost 60% of the global economy, host less than 9% of the world's refugees, while poorer countries shoulder most of the burden, Oxfam has said. According to a report released by the charity on Monday, the US, China, Japan,Germany, France and the UK, which together make up 56.6% of global GDP, between them host just 2.1 million refugees: 8.9% of the world's total...In contrast, more than half of the world's refugees -- almost 12 million people -- live in Jordan, Turkey, Palestine, Pakistan, Lebanon and South Africa, despite the fact these places make up less than 2% of the world's economy." --safari

Sean Ingle of the Guardian: "A devastating and damning report into Russian sport has found that the country's government, security services and sporting authorities colluded to hide widespread doping across 'a vast majority' of winter and summer sports. The International Olympic Committee has promised it will not hesitate to take 'toughest sanctions available' against those implicated.... The IOC president Thomas Bach called the McLaren report 'a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games'. The IOC's executive board will meet via conference call on Tuesday to make initial decisions on possible sanctions for the Rio Games." --safari

The Commentariat -- July 17, 2016

Afternoonish Update:

President Obama addressed the Baton Rouge shootings Sunday at 4:30 pm ET:

     ... The President released this statement earlier. ...

... Jonathan Bullington of the New Orleans Times-Picayune: "Three police officers were killed, and more wounded, after being shot Sunday morning (July 17) in Baton Rouge, the city's mayor said.... The shooting comes in the midst of ongoing protests in Baton Rouge following the fatal officer-involved shooting of Alton Sterling...." -- CW ...

... CW: It appears the Baton Rouge Advocate has live updates here, but the page is crashed right now. ...

... The New York Times has live updates here. ...

... Peter Holley, et al., of the Washington Post: "The shooting unfolded early Sunday as police responded to reports of a man carrying a rifle in an area with grocery stores and other businesses, according to Colonel Michael D. Edmonson of the Louisiana State Police, the agency taking the lead on the investigation. Edmonson stressed that there was no active shooting situation and that police had killed the armed attacker, who died during a shootout with officers." -- CW ...

... Gregory Kreig of CNN: "The head of Cleveland's largest police union is calling on Ohio Gov. John Kasich to temporarily restrict the state's open carry gun laws during this week's Republican National Convention following Sunday's shooting in Louisiana that killed three officers and wounded at least three others." -- CW ...

     ... New York Times: "Gov. John Kasich of Ohio released a statement expressing grief at the attack in Baton Rouge, La., but a spokeswoman said he would not move to restrict the brandishing of guns around the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, which begins on Monday." -- CW ...

... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: Donald Trump blamed the Baton Rouge shooting on "a lack of leadership in our country." "He followed up with a reminder of his '60 Minutes' appearance tonight with his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana." -- CW 

Steve M. takes a look at some of the "soul-searching" among Republicans, along with a promised "rebellion" by some of the delegates to the Republican Convention. He concludes, "There isn't going to [be a] battle for the soul of the Republican Party after November. The party's just going to be what it was prior to Trump, which was already most of the way to Trumpism, except with a veneer of deniability. The only battle will be over how many coats of veneer should be reapplied now that Trump has stripped them off -- if any." -- CW  

Michael Grunwald in Politico Magazine: "In a head-to-head matchup with the ultimate wonk, Trump is betting voters will prefer his bravado to Clinton’s position papers." Thanks to Haley S. for the link. ...

     ... CW: Grunwald's piece is a good read. It reminds me of Stephen Colbert's recent comment to Ben Smith of BuzzFeed about Hillary Clinton: “She’s very serious — and when you’ve got a giant orange manatee to harpoon on the other side, you’re like — I don’t know if anybody [here] fishes, but fish go where the water is good, where you don’t have to work as hard.... [With Clinton,] you have to look for things to do, and when you find them, it’s a policy paper — you try making jokes about a fucking policy paper.” ...

     ... In the end, we have to hope that Hillary has an effective GOTV operation & that the majority of American voters actually care about the future of the country & will cast their votes for the boring wonkette instead of the insane carnival barker. Moreover, if Americans are half as fearful as Trump wants them to be, they almost have to vote for the stability of Clinton over the erraticism of Trump. Frankly, I think the Carnival Barker is hoping for that, too; he hasn't learned policy because he doesn't think he'll ever need to know it. His whole "presidential" campaign is just a rollout for the next series of Trump(TM) products. ...

... Alas, Driftglass interjects this reminder: "Of the Americans who can be bothered to haul their asses to the polls and vote, no matter what you or I say or do and no matter what Trump says or does, at least four in ten voters will affirmatively choose a fascist thug and a theocrat goon to lead this county." -- CW ...

... David Barstow in the New York Times: "... based on the mountain of court records churned out over the span of Mr. Trump’s career, it is hard to find a project he touched that did not produce allegations of broken promises, blatant lies or outright fraud.... Many of those allegations have already become familiar campaign fodder: the Trump University students and Trump condo buyers who say they were fleeced; the public servants from New Jersey to Scotland who now say they rue the zoning approvals, licenses or tax breaks they gave based on Mr. Trump’s promises; the small-time contractors who say Mr. Trump concocted complaints about their work to avoid paying them; the infuriated business partners who say Mr. Trump concealed profits or ignored contractual obligations; the business journalists and stock analysts who say Mr. Trump smeared them for critical coverage.... Taken as a whole, though, an examination of Mr. Trump’s business career reveals persistent patterns in the way Mr. Trump bends or breaks the truth...." -- CW 

*****

Patrick Kingsley of the Guardian: "Turkey’s hardline president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, unleashed a brutal purge of his enemies in the army and judiciary on Saturday after heading off an attempted military coup.... About 2,800 soldiers were arrested in a day of extraordinary drama that saw the putsch ruthlessly put down. More than 2,700 judges were summarily dismissed for their alleged links to the coup’s leaders, while warrants were issued for the arrest of 140 supreme court members." -- CW ...

Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "The defeat of a coup attempt launched by a faction of Turkey’s military has left relations between the United States and one of its most important allies in a state of uncertainty. President Obama called together his national security team for an unusual Saturday morning meeting to discuss events in Turkey and immediately followed it up with a conference call with foreign policy advisers." -- CW ...

... Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "The man that Turkey’s leaders have blamed for a failed coup attempt by a group of army officers is an Islamic scholar named Fethullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania and who has inspired a network said to include more than 160 charter schools in the United States. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that the coup attempt Friday was the work of army officers who are followers of Gulen, who had once been an ally but whose movement has become critical of the increasingly authoritarian regime.... Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Saturday was quoted as saying the United States would support investigations to determine who instigated the attempted coup.... He said he anticipates questions will be raised about Gulen." -- CW ...

     ... Emily Cunningham, et al., of the Washington Post: Erdogan "called on the United States to extradite [Gulen].... The U.S. Embassy in Ankara meanwhile warned Americans to stay away from the Incirlik [NATO] base, which is in the city of Adana. It has been sealed off by local authorities, who also cut power to the base.... The U.S. Embassy warned citizens against heading to the airport amid reports of ongoing sporadic gunfire. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it had barred American commercial aircraft from flying into or out of Turkey." -- CW ...

... Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "The coup attempt in Turkey has yielded its first tangible disruption to the war against Islamic State, as the Pentagon has temporarily lost access to the Turkish airfield it uses as its primary staging ground for its air campaign in Syria and Iraq." -- CW 

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "The western district of the United Methodist church (UMC) elected an openly gay bishop on Friday, despite its ban on same-sex relationships. The Rev Karen Oliveto was elected late in the evening at a meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, of the church’s western jurisdiction." -- CW 

Presidential Race

Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton will call for a constitutional amendment to 'overturn Citizens United' in her first 30 days as president and plans to make that announcement today to progressive activists at the annual Netroots Nation conference. 'I will also appoint Supreme Court justices who understand that this decision was a disaster for our democracy,' Clinton will say in a video message, scheduled to run near the end of today's final keynote session.... Even though the case was fought over an anti-Hillary Clinton documentary, Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) became its most prominent critic in the 2016 primaries." CW News Flash: A Constitutional amendment ain't gonna happen.

Jonathan Swan & Harper Neidig of the Hill: "Donald Trump's campaign is still soliciting illegal donations from foreign individuals – including members of foreign governments at their official email addresses — weeks after the campaign was put on notice by watchdog groups. Foreign members of parliament from the United Kingdom and Australia confirmed to The Hill that they received fundraising solicitations from the Trump campaign as recently as July 12 — two weeks after a widely publicized FEC complaint issued on June 29 by non-partisan watchdogs...." CW: Chutzpah: (def.) calling your rival "criminal" & "crooked" even as you actively, openly & knowingly engage in criminal activities.

CW: You can take the boy out of Queens.... Trumpence sit down in Trump's New York apartment with Lesley Stahl for a "60 Minutes" interview in two of the more embarrassing chairs I've ever seen, although I had been thinking of hiding a boring toilet in a toned-down version -- as a joke:

Good Luck, Turkeys! So many friends in Turkey. Great people, amazing people. We wish them well. A lot of anguish last night, but hopefully it will all work out. -- Donald Trump, during his so-called "formal introduction of Mike Pence," in an example of how President Trump would help manage major crises around the world ...

... The Cheese Stands Alone. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Donald Trump's "introduction of Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana was a remarkable reminder that, ultimately, the Trump campaign is about one person.... Before the governor took the stage, Mr. Trump stood there alone and talked for 28 minutes, delivering a long and improvised riff that emulated his rallies instead of a traditional vice-presidential announcement.... After roughly 20 minutes, Mr. Trump reached for his notes. 'Back to Mike Pence!' he declared.... Then he used the reference to the Hoosier State to remind the 150 people in attendance that he trounced Mr. Pence’s endorsed candidate, Senator Ted Cruz, in the primary there." CW: Yeah, I may be using the pornologo a lot. ...

... (CW: Sadly, the campaign appears to have abandoned yesterday's logo for a new G-rated, non-penetration sign where TRUMP just hovers over pence. But I shall not be deterred.) ...

... Ezra Klein: "Trump emerged without Pence. He spoke, alone, at a podium adorned with Trump’s name, but not Pence’s. And then Trump proceeded to talk about himself for 28 minutes.... It was the single most bizarre, impulsive, narcissistic performance I have ever seen from a major politician.... Every five minutes or so, he seemed to remember, just for a moment...,  that he was there to introduce Mike Pence, and so he would say something like, 'now back to Mike Pence,' but then he would slip back again, and tell another anecdote about himself." -- CW 

... How Not to Choreograph a Major Media Event. Katy Tur, speaking on MSNBC: "This was a room not filled with Donald Trump supporters from rallies, but rather a number of GOP -- New York GOPers, some friends and family, and then just tourists who came in literally from off the street....That being said, it was typical in the way that Donald Trump spent a good portion of the time talking about, frankly, himself, relitigating the primaries, talking about all the deals he's made. Also, perpetuating this idea that he was against the Iraq war when he was not. He spent 29 minutes before he got to Governor Mike Pence [(R-IN)]. And he said part of the reason why he chose him -- and he admitted this -- was that he needed party unity, that he's an outsider and that he needed somebody who would smooth over relations in Washington." -- CW 

Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "... Mike Pence could make things even worse" for Donald Trump "with female, gay and minority voters.... Pence has endorsed controversial legislation on abortion, gay rights and immigration both in Indiana and while in Congress, where he was consistently ranked as one of the most right-leaning members of the House. He attempted to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood funding, supported a measure that made English the nation’s official language and signed one of the nation’s strictest abortion laws earlier this year." -- CW 

The Commentariat -- July 16, 2016

Tim Arango & Ceylan Yeginsu of the New York Times: "A military coup attempt plunged Turkey into a long night of violence and intrigue on Friday, threatening its embattled president, leaving dozens dead and injecting new instability into a crucial NATO member and American ally in the chaotic Middle East. The coup attempt was followed hours later by an equally dramatic public appearance by the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose whereabouts had been unknown for hours after the plotters claimed to have taken control. Flying into Istanbul Ataturk Airport from an undisclosed location early Saturday, Mr. Erdogan signaled that the coup was failing." -- CW ...

     ... CW: In the paper's updated lede (5:45 am ET), the death toll has been raised from "dozens" to "nearly 200."

... Roy Gutman, et al., in the Los Angeles Times: "... authorities said Saturday they had managed to stave off a rebellion that has plunged one of America's most important NATO allies into chaos." -- CW ...

... Erin Cunningham, et al., of the Washington Post: "At least 90 people were killed and 1,154 wounded as ordinary Turks poured into the streets to confront tanks amid pitched battles in the main cities. By morning, government forces had closed in on the army headquarters in Ankara, the final stronghold of coup plotters, said a senior Turkish official who added that 1,563 members of the military have been arrested so far." -- CW ...

     ... New Lede: "Turkey's government defeated a coup attempt by a renegade faction of the military that pummeled government and security institutions overnight with fighter jets, restoring some control on Saturday after hours of chaos and clashes that killed at least 265 people and plunged the already troubled country into further uncertainty. More than 100 coup plotters are now dead, acting military chief Gen. Umit Dundar said on live TV, while another 161 people -- including civilians and police were killed as ordinary Turks poured into the streets to confront tanks amid pitched battles in urban areas. At least 1,440 were wounded, officials said." ...

... Nahal Toosi & Bryan Bender of Politico: "President Barack Obama called on all parties to 'support the democratically elected government of Turkey' on Friday after an attempted military coup in the country, a strategically located but fickle NATO ally whose cooperation is crucial to defeating the Islamic State terrorist network. Obama's view was announced in a readout of his call with Secretary of State John Kerry." The readout is here. -- CW ...

... Roy Gutman in The Daily Beast (in earlier reporting):"A faction in the Turkish military Friday night declared it had staged a coup and seized 'full control' over this country of nearly 80 million. But hours later, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan returned in defiance of the coup plotters, according to officials who spoke to Reuters and CNN. Erdoğan's reported landing comes as forces loyal to him battled to regain control of the instruments of state power." --safari ...

... Krishnadev Calamur, et al., of The Atlantic, have a run-down on what's going on with the coup attempt in Turkey. --safari ...

... The Guardian is liveblogging developments here, which still look volatile at 6:30 am ET.

Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "French authorities ... [saw] Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a heavyset 31-year-old from Tunisia [who mowed down & killed 84 Bastille Day celebrants in Nice & wounded many more, as] definitely trouble but not a grave menace to the security of the nation." -- CW ...

... CW: The Washington Post had a banner at 4:50 am ET, with no story, that ISIS had claimed responsibility for the attack in Nice. ...

     ... Update. Alissa Rubin & Aurelien Breeden of the New York Times: "The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Saturday for the Bastille Day attack on the seaside promenade in Nice, France, which killed 84 people and injured 202.... The claim must be greeted with caution. The Islamic State has at times asserted responsibility for attacks carried out in its name, even when there was no indication that the terrorist network had any direct role in planning or carrying out the violence." -- CW ...

... Sudarsan Raghavan & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "Frustrated crowds booed French President François Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Friday when they visited the bloodied seaside walkway on the French Riviera.... Many French on Friday questioned how the attacker could have swept past police checkpoints at a prominent event that clearly demanded high security. On another level, there was soul-searching once again about France's overall security strategy." -- CW

A Gentleman AND a Scholar: #ObamaJAMA. Kelly Dickerson of Science.Mic: "Barack Obama just became the first sitting president to publish a scholarly article. The article, titled "United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps," with 'Barack Obama, JD' listed as the author, was published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (known as JAMA) on July 11. It's a pretty badass move for a president, and he got a lot of love on Twitter with the hashtag #ObamaJAMA." --safari

Your Friday Afternoon News Dump. Shane Harris of The Daily Beast: "Thirteen years after the publication of a joint congressional inquiry into the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 29 pages on possible ties between the hijackers and Saudi officials were finally released to the public on Friday. (pdf) Close watchers of the possible Saudi-9/11 connection will find few surprises. And the pages will settle no controversies. But they did provide all sorts of tantalizing and inconclusive hints at links between the infamous al Qaeda terrorists and their supporters in the Saudi government--the very government that the terrorist group had vowed to destroy." --safari ...

... The New York Times story, by Mark Mazzetti, is here. -- CW

Alec McGillis, in Politico Magazine:, looks at "the Great Republican Party Crackup" through the lens of Dayton, Ohio, "once a bastion of the GOP establishment, but now ... Trump Country.... The disruption that the nomination of Trump represents for the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan has been cast as a freakish anomaly, the equivalent of the earthquakes that hit the other side of Ohio in recent years. But just as those earthquakes had a likely explanation -- gas and oil fracking in the Utica Shale -- so can the crackup of the Republican Party and rise of Trump be traced back to what the geologists call the local site conditions." -- safari

Annals of "Journalism", Ctd. Mathew Barakatof the AP: Former Fox "News" contributor Wayne Simmons "was sentenced to nearly three years in prison Friday on multiple fraud charges, as well as being a felon in possession of a firearm.... For decades, Wayne Simmons told the world he was a CIA man. And he benefited from the connection.... But it was all, in the words of U.S. Senior Judge T.S. Ellis III, 'buffalo chips.'... Simmons appeared frequently as an unpaid contributor on Fox News before his arrest last year. In a 2009 clip, he called House Minority LeaderNancy Pelosi 'a pathological liar' in a segment about CIA interrogation techniques. Ellis took note of that work at the conclusion of Friday's hearing. 'That should give us all pause as we listen to the news,' Ellis said...." --safari

Presidential Race

Louis Nelson of Politico: "A spokesman for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign confirmed Friday evening that the former secretary of state held several meetings Friday about her upcoming vice presidential selection. According to multiple media reports, Clinton met Friday at her Washington home with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro. All three are considered candidates to join the Democratic ticket, though Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is said to be leading the pack. Both Warren and Kaine have appeared with Clinton on the campaign trail at high-profile events." -- CW

Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News: "... Hillary Clinton's campaign said Friday that [Donald Trump's] selection of [Indiana Gov. Mike] Pence [as his running mate] shows that Trump has 'doubled down on some of his most disturbing beliefs by choosing an incredibly divisive and unpopular running mate known for supporting discriminatory politics and failed economic policies that favor millionaires and corporations over working families." In particular, the Clinton camp highlighted Pence's conservative record on abortion issues as well as his support last year for a religious freedom law that critics said allowed discrimination against LGBT individuals. (Pence later amended the law after a national outcry.)" -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...

Cristiano Lima of Politico: "In his first televised interview since being named Donald Trump's running mate Friday, Mike Pence said the attempted military coup in Turkey was 'evidence' of Hillary Clinton's ]failed leadership' during her tenure as secretary of state." CW: Evidently it doesn't matter that this makes absolutely no sense.

It's very important to put some showbiz into a convention, otherwise people are going to fall asleep. -- Donald Trump, to the Washington Post ...

... Gail Collins: Many of the big "celebrities" Trump planned to feature at his "showbiz" convention begged off in very public ways. "... if Trump can't negotiate some cheesy diversions [at the GOP convention], what makes anybody think he can negotiate a new trade deal with China?" -- CW ...

... Shane Goldmacher, et al. of Politico: "The last-minute plea for $6 million from Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson to rescue the Republican convention has erupted in controversy, as four of the five signatories to the letter from party organizers never saw it before it was sent and major donors flagged serious errors that forced the convention hosts to apologize to one of the GOP's most influential financiers." --safari

Patrick Healy & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "On Friday, as he announced Mr. Pence as his choice and prepared to claim the Republican nomination at the party's convention next week, Mr. Trump still lacked a detailed foreign policy agenda and a deep bench of advisers, appearing instead like a man who had taken his cues about war from Fox News commentators and Twitter users.... Mr. Trump's remarks after the carnage in Nice, France -- such as agreeing with Bill O'Reilly of Fox News that 'we are in a world war scenario' -- are the latest in a startling pattern in which he has projected an image of a country willing to throw out international laws and treaties.... At the Pentagon, interviews with more than a dozen top generals revealed alarm over many of Mr. Trump's proposals for the use of American power, even among officers who said privately that they lean Republican." -- CW

Alexander Burns, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump named Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana as his running mate on Friday, adding to the Republican ticket a traditional conservative who boasts strong credentials with the Christian right, and bringing an end to a vice-presidential selection process that seemed at risk of spinning out of control. Mr. Trump had said on Thursday night that he intended to delay the unveiling of his running mate out of respect for the attack in Nice, France.... On Friday, he proceeded with the announcement anyway. Instead of a showy rollout in a Manhattan hotel, as his campaign had planned, Mr. Trump named Mr. Pence to the Republican ticket by way of Twitter. He said they would hold their first joint event on Saturday morning." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... OR, as Gail Collins put it, "Veep by Tweet": "... this is an excellent vision of what America would be like with Donald in the White House. There's a terrible hurricane. Trump Cabinet members offer several conflicting proposals. President calls various cable TV stations making colorful yet somehow oblique assurances. Rumors abound. Everybody flies to New Orleans. Where they are informed the hurricane was in Florida. Emergency meeting and then Donald Trump tweets out the National Guard." CW: I dunno. I think Gail's a little optimistic. I'm still expecting Trump to go on Hannity & claim Hillary hacked his Twitter account & he's really still trying to decide between Newt & Ivanka. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... ** OR, as Philip Bump of the Washington Post put it, "Donald Trump just turned a key moment into a complete mess (once again).... The announcement of a vice-presidential choice is a guaranteed moment of media attention, and so campaigns do their best to manage how the announcement is made.... Trump badly fumbled one of the first moments during which he was tasked with making an important, high-profile decision in the eyes of the American public." Read the whole post for the play-by-play, which is humorous only if you're sure this guy will never get near the Oval. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Here's a highlight: "Scoop: @realDonaldTrump was so unsure about @mike_pence that around midnight last night [i.e., Thursday night] he asked top aides if he could get out of it" -- Dana Bash of CNN, in a tweet ...

     ... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "If anything, this leak [which Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News also picked up] is just the latest proof of how poorly the whole thing has been handled. And that poor handling, in turn, makes the rumor seem quite plausible. Also making it believable: Basically everything the Trump campaign said on Thursday." -- CW ...

... Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "... Trump's apparent 11th-hour indecision and private hesitation about Pence, coupled with a delayed and fitful introduction, threatened to undercut part of the rationale for Pence joining the ticket: steadying a turbulent general-election campaign.... Trump's campaign, meanwhile, left Pence largely defenseless [against attacks by Hillary Clinton & other Democrats]. After Trump's tweet, the campaign did not distribute a video or other promotional materials to relate Pence's life story and governing accomplishments, nor did it forcefully push back against the Democratic attacks." -- CW ...

     ... CW: For a candidate who binds his employees to contracts in which they agree to be guillotined if they say anything bad about him, all of these damaging leaks come as a shock, as Rucker & Costa (and others, because the leaks drip in many directions) report. ...

... Nikita Vladimirov of the Hill: "Donald Trump's decision to postpone the announcement of his running mate was an emotional reaction to the deadly attack in France, campaign chairman Paul Manafort said Friday.... 'The postponement today was because he thought what happened in France yesterday was so tragic. He emotionally reacted to it,' Manafort told CNN. 'It really bothered him to see that carnage, and he felt the pain of the people there. He said it's just not right to do something self-serving and political the morning after.'" -- CW ...

Jonathan Chait: "To recap the events, the Republican vice-presidential candidate has said that the presidential pick should not be elected president; the Republican presidential candidate has tried as recently as last night to replace his vice-presidential candidate; and the campaign manager has publicly described the presidential candidate as jittery and emotional in the face of upsetting news. And all this has come out in the last day!" --safari ...

     ... CW: Uou'll want to read Chait's whole post, especially the series of tweets by Matt Fuller, to get a full picture of what an amateur fuck-up Trump is. AND, on that same subject ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "... the best evidence of chaos in the Trump camp is the botched vice presidential announcement, which revealed a level of anarchy rarely seen outside of schoolyards at recess.... The whole sorry spectacle shows that Trump's campaign is riven by internal rivalries and that the cronies he's surrounded himself with (and put on his vice-presidential shortlist) are ranting fools.... The chaos of the Trump campaign is the biggest story of the election, and the key indicator of where the race is headed." -- CW

... A Low Bar: Better than Tyson or Busey. Paul Waldman: "When he ought to be figuring out how to appeal to the broad American electorate, Trump is still acting as though his most urgent task is to persuade Republican primary voters to get behind him. He's still running a white nationalist campaign, and has discarded the 'pivot' he was going to do for the general election. It may have been too tall an order for his VP pick to change how people see him ... but it might have at least been a chance to make a gesture indicating that he cared what those who aren't already Republicans think.... I suppose you can give him some credit for not picking Gary Busey or Mike Tyson to be his running mate...." -- CW

Here's the new Trump-Pence logo, which got the Friday afternoon Twitter response it deserves. If you're in the mood for clever frat-boy snark, you'll get a kick out of this Eric Levitz collection. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Aaron Blake: "Chris Christie's tour of Donald Trump-related indignities ends with one final snub." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... AND there's this, from Rucker & Costa's WashPo report linked above: Newt Gingrich said, an hour after the Pence announcement, that he had not heard directly from Trump about his decision but was 'totally committed' to supporting the ticket." ...

... CW: Obviously Donald Trump was not "totally committed" to the minimal courtesies due runners-up whom he had made jump through hoops during his vetting circus. Trump mistreats friend and foe alike. He is far worse than the rube from Queens who is unfamiliar with sophisticated Manhattan table manners; he lacks common decency. (And, no, I don't feel sorry for Cap'n. Chrisco & the Newt; they're big boys who allowed themselves to be serially humiliated. But still.) ...

... BTW, Noah Feldman, in a New York Times op-ed, tries to explain Sharia to that ignoramus Newt Gingrich, who suggested the other night that the U.S. should be running a Sharia inquisition. -- CW ...

... Jeff Goldberg of the Atlantic takes a different tack in explaining Sharia law to Newt, but the upshot is the same: everything Newt said was stupid. -- CW ...

... President Obama, on the other hand, evidently thinks Newt passeth all understanding. Esme Cribb of TPM: "After hosting the Diplomatic Corps reception Friday, Obama spoke out against divisive rhetoric, referencing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's proposal to 'test' and deport American Muslims who follow Sharia law. 'We have heard more suggestions that Muslims in America be targeted. Tested for their beliefs, some deported or jailed,' he said. 'The very suggestion is repugnant and an affront to everything we stand for as Americans.'" -- CW

CW: Under normal GOP conditions, I would say Mike Pence is a heartbeat away from a great gig on the new Trump Channel, the flagship of the post-campaign Trump Media conglomerate. (Don't miss the Trump Golf Channel!) But all things being Trump, it's more likely that sometime in late September/early October, we'll hear that Trump has either fired or tried to fire Pence as his veep choice for some perceived or real Pence screw-up or slight of Don. You read it here first.

Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "Though Mike Pence, Donald Trump's brand new running mate -- is maximally conservative on most of the issues grassroots conservatives care about, he has a history on immigration that could upset the mogul's xenophobic base.... Despite his wishy-washy history on LGBT rights, abortion, the Iraq War, and other topics that typically galvanize Republican primary voters, Trump shored up conservative support by being as far-right as possible on immigration.... On abortion, LGBT rights and the Iraq War Pence has stood firmly with the right wing of the Republican Party. But on immigration .. well, that may just undercut Trump a bit." --safari ...

... Shane Harris: "With Donald Trump's selection of Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate, the Republican ticket is one of the least experienced in national security and foreign policy in the modern political era.... Perhaps the Pence pick should come as no surprise. Throughout his campaign, Trump has showed little interest -- and at times outright hostility — towards foreign policy and national security expertise." --safari

AND Jeb Bush writes a WashPo op-ed to remind people of all political persuasions why they didn't want him to be president. -- CW

Way Beyond the Beltway

Anushka Asthana of the Guardian: "Theresa May continued with a reshuffle that some have called ruthless with the announcement that Anna Soubry -- a supporter during the leadership battle -- was out of her position as small business minister." -- CW

Juan Cole: "Daesh wants us to be afraid, to hate, and to push Western Muslims into their arms. The only effective riposte is Gandhian. Show Muslims some love, and include them in political society.. The US budget is $3.8 trillion, and foreign aid, contrary to what people think, is a piddling little part of it, especially once you get past Israel and Egypt...If the West can't be bothered to proffer genuine and substantial aid to a success story like Tunisia, then it will get more basket cases like Syria, which spill over onto the West...So the answer to Nice is the opposite of what the politicians think. It isn't to declare war on Daesh (Trump), or to do more warrantless surveillance (HR Clinton), or to get rid of the Rights of Man (Francois Hollande)." --safari

Don't Blame It on Rio. Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post: The Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro are a disaster waiting to happen, & the IOC is at fault. -- CW